Trout Fishing The Lower Kananaskis Lake

The Majestic Mountain Getaway

After a long two weeks of moving and hard work at the collision repair shop, it was time to take off and head west. I needed a little relaxation and the mountains always seem to calm me down and recharge my batteries. Our fishing trip was planed out and we settled on the Monday after Canada day long weekend. As the masses were going home, we were arriving. Todd and I met up at Humpy’s across from Canada Olympic Park and filled up on bacon and eggs before driving onward to the Lower Kananaskis Lake for monster Bull Trout. We finished our breakfast and downed the last drop of coffee to wake up. Then we were on the highway at six am sharp.

As we drove up the highway we talked about many of our fishing adventures past. “Remember that one trip” I’d say and Todd would follow up with “I remember when we…” The stories we shared made me happy and excited to fish the lake once again. I stated to Todd that there may be lots of wildlife on or beside the road and to use caution when driving highway 40. Just as the words left my mouth we spotted our first deer in the ditch munching on the foliage. Todd quickly reached for his camera but the deer bounced back into the dense pine and disappeared without a picture. Then just up the road a little, a moose appeared to our left, again to fast for the camera. I thought we were going to see Elk and low and behold, there were Elk. We saw Bald Eagle, Black Bear and some mountain goats all before we reached the lake. What a great start to the day and we had not even made one cast.

Finally after the hour and a half drive we backed the boat into the lake and parked the truck. I wanted to fish the dam area first as I have had good success there in the past. We made many casts and no trout. We decided it was time to move and Todd hammered the throttle down speeding away. A short jaunt up the lake and we spotted another great looking hole. We shut the motor off and fired our Rapala’s into the shoreline. On Todd’s second cast, a Bull Trout slammed his crankbait. The fight was on! The trout was tough but Todd was poised. Trout number one was landed and carefully handled not to harm the fish. The Bull Trout here are protected and considered to be declining in numbers. It is very important to get a big fish like the one Todd caught back into the water as soon as possible to keep the fish from any undo harm. We released the big boy back into the lake in perfect condition. Boy what a specimen it was indeed. The lake was unusually low for some odd reason so this spot only produced one fish. Again we moved up the lake to find more bruiser Bulls. We fished and fished but nothing!

Across the lake we spotted prime water, a creek flowing into the lake. I asked Todd to move us as close as possible to the flowing water. I figured there was a few trout holding in the current. It was shallow but I was determined. Several casts and nothing hooked. Todd wanted to move on but I pleaded with him for five more minutes. Three more casts and I got action, a monster male was peeling line. He was scrapping to get back to his lie after I hooked him. My reel was screaming and I was concentrating on landing this beauty of a fish. I finally netted him in the rubber mesh. I popped the barbless hook from his yap and asked Todd if he could snap a few pictures of my fish before the release. Captured in our minds and on film was another gorgeous monstrosity.

We fished a few more hours but to no avail. The heat was driving the fish to deeper water and we decided to call it a day after six hours of fun in the sun. Another great day was had and another fishing story was added to our collection of many. What was your weekend of fishing like? Where did you go and what did you catch. I would love to hear about your long weekend fishing adventures. Please feel free to add your story below as a comment. I look forward to hearing from you!